Jurassic World: Survival
by DareDreamer
Summary: While on an expedition in the Costa Rican oceans, a young man is shipwrecked and stranded on a strange island. Teaming up with another survivor who has been left behind, he must search for answers about what happened here, and find a way to escape alive. Serves as a prequel to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. (UPDATE: Dates changed from June 2015 to December 2015.)
1. The Island

The storm was bearing down on us, like a big, wet monster trying to tear our boat to shreds. Lightning penetrated the dark night like an explosion, followed by an enormous crash of angry thunder.

Who knew Costa Rican seas had such vicious weather?

The crew members shouted something at me, but I could barely hear them over this beast of a storm. Maybe they wanted me to get below deck, so that's where I went.

Or rather, where I tried to go.

A colossal wave struck the ship's portside, almost capsizing the boat. I would have drowned in the ocean if I hadn't grabbed the railing in time. _Why did I even volunteer for this?_ I thought, my entire body drenched from rain. Struggling to reach the door, another _crash_ of thunder almost snapped my eardrums in half. Was… was nineteen years old too young to die?

For the Pacific Ocean, it wouldn't take "no" for an answer.

The last thing I remembered was our boat riding up to some ominous-looking rocks in the water, with some sort of silhouetted landmark in the distance. The hull screeched as if in pain as it collided with the rocks, sending men and debris alike down into the dark depths. A wave, almost resembling a watery hand, snatched me from the railing to join the others…

…

I slowly opened my eye and instantly slammed it shut as sunlight intruded my line of sight. My brain felt like it was on fire. Groaning, I pressed a hand to my forehead as I slowly sat up, blinking water out of my blue eyes. My memory was hazy. Could I remember…? Yeah. Noah. My name was Noah. I was sent here on some sort of mission. They said I had the expertise. What was it, something involving search-and-rescue? Recon? At least I remembered what year it was: 2017.

I pushed the thought away while brushing sand out of my brown hair. I'd figure that out later. Right now, I had to find out where I was. Looking around, I saw that I was on some sort of beach, with the ocean calmer than I remember. It must be morning, due to the angle from the sun. The boat I was on was here, too, washed up onto the beach.

Okay, first order of business: search the wreck for anything useful… and people.

Hoisting myself up, I heard some sort of chittering noise. I turned to see some sort of chicken-sized lizard cocking its head at me curiously. It was bipedal and green, had a tail and front claws on tiny forearms. It hopped forward a bit, chittering again.

"Shoo," I said, waving my arm at the animal. "Get outta here." The creature jumped back and chirped before skittering away across the sand. Turning my attention back to the boat, I noticed numerous holes in the hull, some larger than the rest. Seaweed had been draped across the railing, and bodies… bodies of the crew were scattered on the deck and beach, staining the sand with blood. "Hello?!" I called out, approaching the boat and climbing on board! "Hello?! Anyone there? Anybody still alive?"

I waited for a response. Nothing. The crew was dead, and I was the only survivor. Instincts told me to grieve later, and search the boat for supplies, food, anything. So, I went around the deck, opening any hatch or door I could find.

The captain's log was soaked, but I managed to find something of use. The book said that our destination was somewhere near the archipelago known as "Las Cinco Muertes", or "The Five Deaths" in Spanish. Our target island was called "Isla Nublar", which I was not familiar with. It also stated that we were there to salvage anything left after the "incident". But what incident?

After leaving the boat with a bag of food and supplies and walking up the beach, a staircase came into view with some sort of monorail station. They were covered in vines and leaves, as if abandoned. I took off my life jacket, useless now that it was shredded, and my eyes rested on a sign covered in foliage. I knelt down and began to wipe off the leaves, itching to know what it said.

As soon as I brushed away the last vine, the sign showed a white dinosaur skull, neck and forearms surrounded by blue. There was also a message written in white below it.

It read "Welcome to Jurassic World."


	2. When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth

The monorail was not in operation, so I had to trek down the tracks, all the while being cautious of sections that would collapse under my feet. I even had to maneuver around a derailed train in front of a gate with the words "Jurassic World" on it in blue letters.

What was this "Jurassic World"? Some sort of theme park?

After stepping through the gate, a large pool of some sort stretched across the entire area, with some sort of boardwalk on the other end. The whole place was empty. What happened here? Carefully, I kept my balance on the bridge over the pool, gulping when I saw the murky water below, as if they held something down there. Some sections of the bridge were falling apart or gone, so I had to jump across them to not plummet into the water. Thankfully, I managed to cross without falling in. I exhaled a sigh of relief when I reached the boardwalk with various shops, a restaurant and an arcade on both sides. They all looked completely destroyed. There was another building directly down the path called the "Hammond Innovation Center". Hmm. Maybe I could find something useful there.

Like the rest of the place, the lobby was in ruins. My mind itched for more answers. Barely-functioning holograms flickered in and out, as if fighting to stay alive. Exhibits lay everywhere, some explaining mass extinctions and others covering paleontology. A particular exhibit caught my eye. Moving closer, I read the sign, which explained that Jurassic World started out as a dream for one man.

That man, John Hammond, wished to create a half-theme park, half-zoo on this very island, filled with living, breathing **dinosaurs**. He called it "Jurassic Park". I had to pause reading for a moment to get this all through my head. How did he manage to bring these prehistoric animals back from extinction?

The exhibit said that Hammond to managed to achieve his goal by extracting dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes preserved in amber. Jurassic Park was scheduled to open in 1993, but a disaster occurred. A technical failure caused the dinosaurs to escape from their enclosures and wreak havoc on the island. Jurassic Park was shut down and never opened to the public.

That is, until more than 20 years later, Hammond's dream finally became reality. A new theme park opened on Isla Nublar, and it succeeded where Jurassic Park could not. The new park was called "Jurassic World", which over 20,000 visitors arrive each day. And it ensured complete safety for the tourists.

As I finished reading, I knew there was more to the story. Apparently, Jurassic World suffered the same fate as Jurassic Park: a technical failure that allowed its ancient exhibits to run wild, causing the park to shut down and never reopen. Which meant I had to be careful, or a single moment could be my last.

But was it really a technical issue that brought the park to its knees? Or was it something else? I had to find out. I needed to search every inch of the park for clues about what happened.

I exited the Innovation Center and pulled out a journal from the bag I found on the ship. I wrote down what I discovered in bullet points along with questions I had, like "Was there more?", "How many dinosaurs are on the island?" and "How long since abandonment?" As soon as I finished the last question, a loud _snap_ ringed in my ears, and I froze as something clamped down on my shoulder.


	3. Chaos Theory

Every nerve in my body suddenly sprung into action as I screamed and collapsed near the steps leading to the Center. My heart was beating double-no, **triple** -its normal rate. In an instant, my attacker clasped a warm hand around my mouth and hissed. "SSHH! You want to become the main course for a T-Rex?!" Human! It was human!

The person let go so I could catch my breath. I was still a little freaked out because I thought I was going to be lunch. "Things have changed now." The person said. "It was our park, but now it's their world." I turned around to see a girl with green eyes, around 17 from the looks of it, standing over me. Her black hair and face were gritty and parts of her red T-shirt and jeans had claw marks and stained blood on them. She held out a hand to help me up.

"Sorry about that." I groaned. "I thought you were one of those… things." "Save it." the girl snapped at me. "What are you doing out here?" I brushed myself off before putting the journal back in the bag. "Name's Noah. I was sent here with a crew to salvage what's left from the 'incident', whatever the heck that is." The girl looked around for a moment. "And they would be?" "They… they didn't make it. A storm hit our boat and we crashed on shore. I'm the only one left alive." I answered.

"Nice to meet you, Noah. I'm Beth." The girl said. "Well, good to know there's still someone else here. So what's your…" Before I could finish, a loud bellow echoed like thunder through the boardwalk. Beth's eyes widened in terror. "Come on, we gotta go!" she whispered while taking my hand and leading me off the boardwalk.

We arrived near a section of the park that was completely covered in foliage. A small shop was transformed into a makeshift hideout, which I presumed was where Beth was staying. "So, uh, as I was saying, what's your story?" I asked curiously. Beth hesitated for a moment before starting. "I went to this place with my family for Christmas break back in December 2015." "2015? Wasn't that like a year or two back?" "Yeah. I still have dreams about it. That was when the park shut down."

I leaned closer to her. "Do you know what happened here? Because I didn't know anything about this place until I got here." Beth took in a deep breath. "One minute, everything was perfect. I was with my family out on Main Street discussing if we should return to our hotel or go on another ride. That was when the announcement speakers said there was a 'containment anomaly'. Then the next minute… the next minute was pure chaos."

She paused to wipe a tear from her cheek. "Something went wrong at the aviary, and the pterosaurs went loose. Every Pteranodon and Dimorphodon held there flew off and attacked everyone on Main Street, snatching helpless tourists up and carrying them off. Someone was even dropped in the Mosasaur arena." I froze. "M-Mosasaur? As in the prehistoric sea monster?" Beth nodded. "It burst right out and chomped the woman and Pteranodon all in one bite. Anyway, Asset Containment Unit was on scene, shooting the pterosaurs with tasers and non-lethal weapons."

"I couldn't think straight. I was separated from my parents, someone was shouting 'Zach! Gray!' over and over, and screams filled my ears. A Pteranodon snatched me up in its talons and dropped me into some trees. When I came to, it was night and I was alone. Everyone had been evacuated… including my parents. They… they must have thought I was dead. And now… here I am, left to die on this God-forsaken island."

For a few minutes, Beth was silent. Probably wondering how her parents were feeling right now, having "lost" their daughter. "Listen, I promise we'll find a way off this island. But first I need answers to what happened here, and to what caused the pterosaurs to go berserk like that. So why don't we get some rest for now and explore the island later? Oh, and I've got some food and supplies from the boat in my bag."

"Okay." Beth whispered. "Sounds like a plan." She lied down on the shop's floor while I looked outside. A moaning sound filled the air as I noticed a gray-skinned dinosaur strolling down the ruined Main Street. If I was right, it was a Triceratops separated from its herd. Even though it was herbivorous, it was still a threat with its horns. "So, how many dinosaurs do they have here?" I asked Beth. "The exact number? Never crossed my mind. But I do know some of the species. Brachiosaurs, Pterosaurs, Triceratops, Dimorphodon, Compsognathus, Stegosaurs, Ankylosaurs, hadrosaurs, T-Rex… I could go on."

 _T-Rex._ I thought. _It just wouldn't be a dinosaur theme park without a T-Rex._ "Okay, let's get some rest. Later, I'm heading to where they made the dinosaurs." I said, laying down on the floor. The last thing I heard in this dying kingdom was the sound of pterosaurs squawking and flying overhead.


	4. The Untamable King

It had been at least a day since I've arrived on the island and met Beth. Today, we would be searching for clues about what happened. Questions filled my mind like the ocean. What caused the pterosaurs to go berserk? What caused the park to shut down? Was it more than just a technical malfunction?

The Innovation Center didn't have many answers, just saying that a "secret project" would be opening December 2015. If I'm right, this "secret project" had something to do with the chaos. Beth had told me she heard of it during her stay, but she was clueless about what it was.

An hour later, we stumbled upon some kind of control center that had an entire digital map of the park up front. There were some security camera footage too, but, like the digital map, they were barely functioning. As if fighting to resist the urge of death. "Beth, see if you can rewind some of those back to December 2015. Gotta know what happened here." I struggled with this task because of how static-like they were. After about ten unsuccessful attempts, I got something. The image looked like some sort of cage or arena.

Beth seemed to recognize the people on the feed. "I know these people." She said. "I got it in the staff sheet. That woman in white is Claire Dearing, the owner of the park. And the man next to her is Simon Masrani, a billionaire who founded Jurassic World." It looked like they were talking, so I turned up the audio.

"But she's intelligent, though?" Simon asked, looking out the glass window. Claire nodded. "For a dinosaur." _Intelligent?_ I thought. No dinosaur I know of has an intelligence level like a Troodon.

"And that?" Simon asked, pointing to some creepy-looking cracks in the window. What dinosaur was this place holding? "It tried to break the glass." Claire responded. Simon nodded. "I like her spirit." I turned to Beth. "It's a female?" "All dinosaurs are female here. It's to prevent unauthorized breeding, from what I've been told." "Talk about your gender issues." I murmured under my breath.

The two were silent for a moment, staring out into the trees in the paddock. Then, Simon spoke up, surprised. "It's white! You never told me it was white!" Beth and I exchanged confused glances. _White?_ Claire was silent before she spoke in a nervous tone. "Think it will scare the kids?" Simon was not fazed. "The kids? This will give the parents nightmares." "Is that… good?" "It's fantastic."

The feed continued for a few more minutes. I quickly jotted down more notes as Claire explained there was a sibling of the animal, but it was eaten. "Come on, come on, what animal?" I muttered. Simon went on, saying that there was someone who worked in the Navy before arriving here on the island. I even made sure to write down his name before the camera feed stopped: Owen Grady.

After three minutes of me catching up with information on this mystery animal, Beth fired up another camera that showed a giant pair of open doors that were starting to close. Just as they were about to shut, someone ran through, followed by a dinosaur. But this dinosaur… was nothing like I'd ever seen before. It had white scales, long, clawed arms and yellowish eyes. It wedged between the doors and stomped into view. Our eyes widened at the sight. "What…what is that thing?" Beth whispered, terrified. I only shook my head.

In the suspenseful moments that followed, the dinosaur flipped over a pickup truck, chomped down on a worker, and sniffed under a crane before exiting the scene. "It's going to wreak havoc on the park. Did ACU try to stop it?" "Uh… no. From the looks of this next file, it seems an entire squad was almost wiped out in an attempt to subdue it." I answer, checking another dossier. "Find something else."

"Got something." Beth announced. "This one's the aviary." She brought it up and a peaceful image of pterosaurs came into view. This didn't last long though, as our mystery dinosaur crashed into the dome and started roaring at the prehistoric flyers. Panicked, the pterosaurs flew off as the dinosaur roared at them again, sending them through the hole it had made. Suddenly, it dawned on me. "It's herding them. Claire wasn't kidding when she said it was intelligent."

Beth was horror-stricken, tears starting to emerge. "That thing… it's why I'm trapped here. That's what left me to die." I instantly turned to her, as if knowing her next move. "Wait… you're planning on killing it?" She wiped her cheek. "Yes. If it's still out there." "You're insane! That thing could bite your head off in a single second!" I shouted back. A crashing noise echoed in the camera, as if interrupting us, and we turned to see a helicopter wreckage in the aviary and the dinosaur leaving, having finished its job here.

While we searched for another feed, I found that Simon Masrani was in the helicopter when it crashed, killing him. Beth's nightmares about Main Street, however, had returned. After calming her down with hopes that we would leave the island alive, we also found a file about someone named Vic Hoskins, someone in charge of a Velociraptor training program that Owen had participated in. Afterward, we brought up another video which showed him, Claire, a bearded man who I assumed was Owen, and two kids, one taller than the other, in a laboratory with strange animals in cages.

"That's not a real dinosaur." One of the kids stated, pointing to a monitor with our mystery dino on it. "No, it ain't, kid." Vic confirmed. "But somebody's gotta make sure this company has a future." He gestured to the monitor. "Imagine that one, a fraction of its size. Intelligent, deadly, able to hide from the most advanced military technology. A living weapon unlike anything we've ever seen." I jotted this down. Was this man insane? Making animals living weapons?

That...that was just wrong...

"See," Hoskins continued. "millions of years of evolution… what did we learn?" Silence. "Nature is the gift…"

 ** _SNAARRRLL!_** Everyone, including me and Beth, jumped back as a dinosaur, a Velociraptor, slowly approached into the lab, cornering Hoskins near a wall while the other four were grouped together, a concerned look on Owen's face. "Easy… easy, boy." He stammered nervously. "Easy." The raptor crept towards him, growling. "Hey. Hey, we're on the same side, right?" Hoskins asked the reptile, as if trying to talk it out of eating him. Slowly, he held out his arm, reaching for its snout. "Easy… I'm on your side…" That was when the raptor bit down.

"I… I never knew there were raptors on the island." Beth told me as Hoskins was devoured by the Velociraptor while the other four hurried out of the room. "There should be something else." I said, starting to look for another camera. "Wait. Here's one on Main Street at night." I brought it up, and both of us were amazed as it started to play out.

Our mystery dinosaur was fighting both a Velociraptor _and_ a T-Rex. Many boardwalk shops were utter debris as the two giants clashed. Both were covered in scrapes, scars and blood. The raptor was jumping between the two, trying to stay in the fight. After slamming its opponent into another building, the T-Rex knocked the mystery dinosaur onto the ground, close to the pool. It got up, dazed and roared at the other two, who roared back. Both of our hearts stopped as we witnessed what came next.

The Mosasaurus breached from the arena and clamped its jaws around the mystery dinosaur and dragged it down into the murky depths. That was all before the feed stopped and the security monitor blacked out, having run out of juice. Beth let out a sigh of relief. "It's dead. The monster is dead. Well, now I don't have to be trapped by it here." While I listened, I noticed one last file. "Hey! This contains more stuff about it!" Beth whirled around to me with wide eyes. "Really?"

"Yeah." I answered, turning through the folder. "It says here that this animal was…" "What? What does it say, Noah?" she asked impatiently. "This animal… was a genetically-modified hybrid." "A… a hybrid? They made an entirely new dinosaur?" I nodded. "Yes. It was made from a T-Rex base genome, but it says the rest is classified." Beth leaned close to me. "Does it have a name? Please say yes."

I didn't answer her, but I wrote down something new in my journal. The animal's name.

 _Indominus Rex (Untamable King)_


	5. Rescue Plan

That afternoon, Beth and I stood near the broken-down ride in a lush, beautiful valley where I could see a herd of Apatosaurus grazing at treetops, two Triceratops clashing horns, and a few Stegosauruses in the distance. Now that we knew of what happened here, our next step was simple. Find a way to get off the island… or survive until help arrived. Maybe we could signal somebody.

"What did you say these things were again?" I asked, pointing to a circular vehicle with a joystick, visor screen and two seats. "Gyrospheres." Beth replied. "I've been on one of those before. Tourists basically used these to traverse the valley up ahead to observe the herbivores. From what we found in the control room, one of them, Gyrosphere 7, went off-course into the out-of-bounds zone. Those idiots."

I nodded. The driver of that craft must have been really reckless and rebellious to ignore that order to return to the station. "They still in operation?" Beth shook her head. "Don't think so. We're gonna have to go on foot." I sighed and leapt down onto the grass, Beth right behind me. Our goal for now was to find a vehicle, like a boat, so that we could leave. If that failed, it was onto Plan B: signal for help. If **that** failed, our last desperate measure was to wait until help arrived.

"Maybe we could go down to the beach you arrived, Noah? See if your boat might still be working?" I turned to see her lightly scratch a baby Triceratops under the chin before it scampered away back to a resting adult. "The boat has holes in it and is broken down. Fat chance." I responded, stating the obvious. "If it wasn't like that, I would have found a way to fix it and left, leaving you behind if I didn't find you."

We stuck to the sides of a forest so we wouldn't disturb the peaceful-yet-dangerous herbivores. I wouldn't want to find myself on the wrong end of a Triceratops horn or impaled by a Stegosaurus tail. "Maybe we could try another shoreline." I suggested hopefully. "We could probably find a speedboat or something."

"Or maybe one of those yachts that transports visitors from Costa Rica to here." Beth replied. "Yachts?! Okay, now I wish that I had been here before." I said jealously. Beth snickered upon hearing this but froze still afterward. "Wait." She said, holding out a hand. I stopped and turned to her, puzzled. "What is it?" I asked. "The ground…do you feel that?"

I stood silent for a moment before a loud rumble came into earshot. It came from the volcano…which could only mean one thing. "The sooner we get off this rock, the better. Otherwise, _we'll_ be the ones extinct this time." I whispered. Beth turned to me, confused.

"One, it'll be a while before Mt. Sibo, if I read the park map right, erupts. And two…"

The ground quaked again, this time in a slow rhythm. A few of the herbivores stopped what they were doing and turned to some trees, which were moving.

"…I wasn't talking about the volcano."


	6. All Hail The Queen

Instinctively, a Stegosaurus let out a bellow, which other members of its herd returned before running off into the valley. The Apatosaurus also made sounds of danger as they stampeded into the jungle on the other side of the valley. The Triceratops were on full alert, forming a circle between the two treelines with the young ones inside while roaring out threats to whatever was coming.

The quakes came faster as the dinosaur picked up speed. "Beth?! What is that?" I yelled over the herd. Her eyes were wide with horror. She turned to face me and muttered a single word, but I couldn't hear her over the bellowing Triceratops. "What?!" I yelled again. She whipped her head towards the trees, then back to me.

"RUN!" she screamed.

And that's exactly what we did as the forest exploded behind us and the dinosaur roared so loudly I had to cover my ears. I didn't dare look back as Beth and I ran back to the Gyrosphere station. The ground shook again as the dinosaur closed its jaws around something and threw it to the ground, its prey almost screaming in pain. My heart pounded as we passed the station and kept running. That's when I finally felt brave enough to turn back.

The dinosaur, a vicious Tyrannosaurus Rex with scars all over it, had a Stegosaurus's neck in its jaws. The poor thing must have not escaped with its herd in time. Just before it could eat, it stopped and turned its head… to us.

"GO! GO! GO!" Beth screamed as the T-Rex roared again before stomping towards us, hoping for more easy prey. The two of us kept running as it completely smashed through the Gyrosphere station, obliterating it into a shower of splinters with another colossal roar. I ran for what felt like forever, but the two of us eventually stopped and hid. Beth hid behind a giant rock and I dove under a log.

The T-Rex was still heading towards us, and Beth was starting to sweat. "Don't move!" she hissed at me quietly. "What?! Are you crazy?!" I answered in disbelief. "Its vision's based on movement! We're invisible to it if we stay still!" I wanted to reject the idea, but my fear-powered instincts told me to lie still and play dead. Soon, the beast arrived and bent down to the log, sniffing it.

The disgusting scent of rotten flesh entered my nostrils as the dinosaur opened its jaws with a low growl. I fought the urge to open my eyes or even move a single muscle in my body. As soon as the T-Rex's giant head moved away from the log, I slowly let out a sigh of relief as it stomped over to Beth's hiding place to investigate.

After another minute, a thunderous roar of frustration erupted from the dinosaur's throat and it stomped away, back to the valley to feast on the dead Stegosaurus. Beth and I slowly emerged from our hiding places while panting heavily.

"That… was close." Beth gasped. I nodded in approval. "…Too close…I don't know about you, but I would reject taking a tour of a carnivore's digestive system."

She wiped some sweat from her forehead while I brushed some cobwebs off my shoulder. "Now… where were we?" "Um…boats? Escape?" Beth reminded me. Still recovering, the two of us slowly hiked back to Main Street, where we would find the best route to a beach or two.


	7. One Clever Girl

Several weeks had gone by since my arrival on the island and I've had a lot of experiences so far. First off, Beth taught me that if I heard a Pteranodon screech from the skies, my best bet was to scramble for cover in case it dove down. Two, one of my expeditions into the jungle led me right to the ruins of Jurassic Park's old Visitor Center, which was more beat down than the rest of Jurassic World. It looked like it was becoming a part of the landscape itself.

But none of them were more "interesting" than this. One day, we were low on food, so Beth had to resort to scavenging meat from an already dead Apatosaurus. Needless to say, that wasn't one of my best times.

On another topic, our search for transportation had crashed to a halt. We found no boats, no helicopters, **nothing** that could get us off Isla Nublar. So, we had no choice but to hold out and survive until somebody came. Although… I never told Beth this… but I didn't think anybody's coming.

Today, the two of us were venturing through another jungle, what was formerly part of a river ride called the "Cretaceous Cruise". While I had a machete borrowed from the ship, Beth had a makeshift bow and arrow. I had to hack away any vegetation while she had to find us a meal.

"Stop." She whispered, holding up a fist. I peered closer to what she had found. In the distance, a lone Parasaurolophus was taking a drink from the river. After motioning for me to stay quiet, Beth drew an arrow, nocked it and aimed for the dinosaur's lung, hoping for a quick death.

Everything seemed to slow as she drew back on the bowstring. Even I felt the tension. Suddenly, a sound resembling a cracking twig erupted from the jungle, causing the hadrosaur to turn its head and immediately flee. "Dammit." Beth hissed, lowering her bow. "Come on. We're going after…"

Before she could finish, another dinosaur burst into the clearing. This one I recognized. A Velociraptor, like the one on the camera feed. It had amber-like eyes and a blue stripe running down each side of its body. It sniffed the air before lowering its head to the ground, making some kind of chittering noise. It was also hunting our quarry.

Quietly, the two of us started to back away before the raptor jerked its head in our direction. We froze, wondering if it had spotted us. After chittering again, it crouched down and hissed, both foot sickles raised. "Go. Go!" I whispered, grabbing Beth's arm and dragging her. Just as I did, the raptor shrieked and took a running start before leaping…

…to our left.

Ferns rustled and another dinosaur roared and moaned in pain as the hunter tackled and struggled with its prey before bringing it to the ground. Beth and I stayed quiet before we slowly peeked through the foliage.

The raptor wasn't going for us, but for a baby Triceratops that had wandered too far from its herd. The raptor had pounced on it and bit down on the neck and was now munching on its torso. Slowly, I breathed a sigh of relief. "Come on." I gestured to Beth. "Let's move before it picks up our scent." She nodded. "Right behind you."

Just before we left, I managed to get some good information about the Velociraptor while it paused from its meal and gave out another low screech. During this, a thought came to my mind. Back in the control room, I discovered that Owen had trained a pack of four raptors, each with their own name: Blue, Echo, Charlie and Delta. Was this raptor one of them?

 **(A/N: I was thinking whether or not I would have Noah and Beth run into Blue or not. It seemed appropriate at the time.**

 **P.S: Sorry for all you Triceratops/ dino baby fans. But what other small dinosaur (other than a Compy) can a raptor kill alone?)**


	8. Life Finds A Way

If I was going to die here, I could already see it.

The volcano bursting open like an atomic bomb. Fire and brimstone raining down just as it had done 65 million years ago. The dinosaurs' own Armageddon. Within hours (or even minutes) every living thing on Isla Nublar would be eradicated… and the most lethal predators the planet has ever seen would face extinction again.

I had lost count of how long Beth and I had been here, but it felt like a year. I didn't care since we were basically on a ticking time bomb. My brain constantly clashed over if someone would come or not. I could feel it. The world was probably arguing about whether the dinosaurs deserve to die again or if they should do something about it.

But they weren't considering human lives on the island. If they even came here to preserve these animals, they would be in for quite a shock if they discovered us.

Beth and I had extended our little hideout to cover at least three to four of the shops on Main Street. Every so often, a lone herbivore would come strolling along, take one look at us, and move on. A bunch of hand-crafted weapons rested on some countertops while Beth had scratched the walls with tally marks like a prisoner, indicating how long we've lasted. I haven't even bothered to count them. And every time I would look into a mirror or anything that showed my reflection, I could see facial hair starting to sprout.

The days were mere seconds to me. Every amount of time was just a step closer to the island's doom. And ours.

I stood out on the cliffside overlooking the beach, still trying to recover from my earlier nap. It was, as far as I knew, the last peaceful thing I was going to see. I had even sketched it in my journal, which was almost full of the various events and dinosaurs I had already added. I had even drawn the ship I arrived in, which was now starting to rust.

Rescue now seemed impossible. We had tried signal fires, but local dinosaurs had tampered with them out of their curiosity. We had spelled out "HELP" on a beach with rocks, but the tide carried out some of them. And we haven't seen a plane, helicopter or boat for days.

I was tempted to end everything early. But the constant moans of brachiosaurs and bellows of Triceratops were enough to keep me from suicide. Enough for me to know that not everything on the island wanted to kill me.

"Noah!" Beth called out to me. I turned around and, to my confusion, she looked excited. Almost as if… "A ship! There's a ship here! By the East Dock!" A wave of hope surged through me, but I stood my ground. "You better not be messing with me." I said in a serious tone.

"Mess with you?! In a time like this?! No! Come on, let's get what we can and move!" She yelled back before running off to the hideout. I stood up and followed to grab whatever I needed.

"How'd you know there was one coming?" I asked her, gathering the remainder of our food and supplies in a bag. "I heard a foghorn while you were still asleep, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't my mind messing with me, so I hiked down there. Now hurry up!" Now, my hopes were completely raised as I sped up the gathering.

Beth basically sprinted through the jungle leading to the docks as I hurried to keep up, vaulting over low branches and shoving vines out of my way. Every now and then I would lose sight of her, but both of us managed to reach the dock. I had to stop to catch my breath as Beth jumped up and down, waving her arms and shouting. I looked up to see our rescuers… and my senses almost stopped.

Reacting fast, I tackled Beth to the ground behind a rock and shushed her. "What the hell are you doing?!" she hissed. "They could be here for us!" I shook my head. "No, they're not. Look." I pointed to the ship as we peeked over the rock. Beth gasped as my heart dropped.

The cargo ship, with the word _Arcadia_ on the side, had unloaded a bunch of trucks with cages and transportation on them, and they were now driving into the jungle. On another part of the dock, a Gallimimus was struck by a tranquilizer dart from one of the men and collapsed. The men proceeded to load it into a cage. And the volcano rumbled again in the distance.

"Armed men everywhere… trucks with cages… they're here for the dinosaurs." Beth confirmed. "Probably to save them from the volcano." I added before staring at the _Arcadia._ "We've got to get on that ship. It's our only way off this doomed place." Beth turned to me. "Okay. You sure we can't tell the guys here?"

"No," I reply with a stern look. "Some of those guns look like they're loaded with bullets rather than tranqs. They'd probably shoot us on the spot." "So how do we get on the ship?" I remained silent for a moment. "…Quietly."

Together, we snuck down to the dock, taking cover behind containment equipment and parked vehicles. Along the way, I heard some of the men speaking to each other. "How long have until that thing blows?" One of them asked.

"I'd say at least a few hours. Maybe minutes." Another one responded.

"And what about our 'volunteers'? They coming or what?"

"Keep your head on straight. Their plane's en route. They'll be here."

The first man smiled. "Good. The lady who worked here should help us track the targets. And we're gonna need the raptor wrangler if we're ever gonna catch the blue one. Mr. Wheatley said he should be useful."

The second man chuckled. "Useful indeed. That raptor's the last of her kind. She's definitely a must."  
"And when we get all the requirements? We leave the island before it becomes a living hell, right?"

"Yeah. Then we head back to the mainland. Anyone left behind, we ain't coming back for. If we leave anybody, too bad for them. They'll burn with the island."

We kept moving while my brain processed everything. They were here for the dinosaurs and nothing else. And, from the looks of the crew, they were mercenaries and didn't want any extras or unwanted help. If they did, they'd just cast them aside when they were finished.

As we approached the ramp, we slowly clambered on and took cover in a secured section.

We must have been asleep for who-knows-how-long because I woke up to Beth shaking me, followed by roars, loud booms and explosions. "We need to move." She whispered. "They're going to come in here any second now. We can't let them see us." I agreed as the two of us ran to the upper deck, where we would have a clearer view.

What we saw was pure chaos. The sky over the island was now a fiery red, and the volcano was now destroyed. Lava engulfed the island as fireballs smashed everything on the dock. As the ship started to move away, a single truck managed to drive up the ramp just in time.

I smiled and hugged Beth, who stifled out a laugh of happiness. After months of isolation, we were finally heading home. But my excitement quickly faded as I heard a low trumpeting sound from the dock and saw a fading silhouette, but that wasn't what was on my mind. My mind was full of questions.

What would happen to the dinosaurs now? Who were these guys and what did they want from them? And why did I have the feeling I would find myself in something much bigger… and sinister?

…

 _"_ _Control…well, here's the thing. Humanity is desperate for it…we are seduced by it…deceived by the illusion of it…but we never really possess it._

 _Because if there's anything that chaos theory has taught us, it's that nature is on its own course. And when we interfere, when humanity tries to put nature into orderly boxes, chaos destroys them._

 _And what makes such unique creatures is knowing the scope and power of what we're up against and still believing that we can win._

 _I know, however, what I would predict…"_

-Dr. Ian Malcolm


End file.
